Applications are now open to participate in a training and research project for ESOL teachers to pilot and develop a six week ESOL + Theatre of the Oppressed course.

Language, Resistance, Theatre is a project by the Serpentine Galleries Edgware Road Project, where participatory ESOL teachers and Implicated Theatre (a Theatre of the Oppressed collective led by director Frances Rifkin) work with language learners to develop a more political ESOL approach that combines language with a focus on resistance.

Last year we ran a free workshop series for English language learners bringing theatre and language experts together to experiment with different ideas. Following that 8 week pilot project, which aimed to work with second language speakers to combine Boal inspired Theatre of the Oppressed work with language development, we will be launching a series of training sessions and inviting interested teachers to pilot a six week course in their own classrooms. From September 2016 we will be working towards creating a resource materials for ESOL teachers to be launched at the end of the year. A report about the pilot project by Becky Winstanley is available to download here.

We will be holding open training for ESOL teachers interested in learning more about the project and Theatre of the Oppressed techniques, as well as two workshops where participants will begin to practice bringing these techniques into a classroom setting.

Theatre of the Oppressed in the ESOL classroom 1 – Saturday 24th September 2016

Theatre of the Oppressed in the ESOL classroom 2 – Saturday 8th October 2016

Core teachers:

We are recruiting a core team of experienced ESOL teachers who want to be involved in classroom based action research which will contribute to a resource pack or curriculum for other ESOL teachers combining Theatre of the Oppressed and ESOL. This will involve a SIX WEEK commitment to teaching the course in your own classroom, accompanied by a Theatre of the Oppressed mentor as well as attending and writing weekly reflections and contributing to the editing of the final resource pack or curriculum. Commitment to teaching must occur between October 2016 – November 2016